English Standard Version ESV
New Living Translation NLT
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
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This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision.
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence! ”and you will not save?
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How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save.
3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
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Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.
4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.
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The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.
5 “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.
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The LORD replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.
6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.
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I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
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They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
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Their horses are swifter than cheetahs and fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their charioteers charge from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.
9 They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand.
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“On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
10 At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it.
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They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them!
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god! ”
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They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.”
12 Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
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O LORD my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal— surely you do not plan to wipe us out? O LORD, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins.
13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
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But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they?
14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.
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Are we only fish to be caught and killed? Are we only sea creatures that have no leader?
15 He brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net; he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad.
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Must we be strung up on their hooks and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate?
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich.
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Then they will worship their nets and burn incense in front of them. “These nets are the gods who have made us rich!” they will claim.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?
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Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2025
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.